Abstract
As the underlying technology behind Bitcoins, blockchains have attracted the attention of entrepreneurs, policymakers, and academics alike. Its potential to facilitate transactions, coordination without a central authority, and its capacity to support smart contracts are likely to open the door for its application to numerous settings. One of the more prominent applications is the clean energy sector. This chapter provides insights on how this novel technology that offers disintermediation, transparency, and flexibility is providing new ways of interaction to tackle challenges of communication, coordination, and efficiency in the clean energy sector. Along with providing a brief overview of the blockchain technology, we discuss some of the prominent clean energy applications of the technology, such as micro energy exchange grids, cap and trade, and electrical vehicle charging networks. Furthermore, the chapter includes empirical evidence on initial coin offerings (ICOs) launched by projects focusing on various aspects of development of renewable energy sector. We identify six prominent themes of services, namely, clean cryptocurrency mining, energy exchange, project financing, investment intermediation, network building, and hosting incentive programs. Furthermore, we find that clean energy ICOs tend to be more successful than other similar ICO projects.
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Notes
- 1.
To identify ICOs by projects focusing on clean energy, we use dictionary-based approach complimented with manual verification. We search for the words “green energy,” “cleantech,” “recycle,” “wind,” “power,” “solar power,” “biomass,” “renewable energy,” “hydro-electric,” “photovoltaic,” “geothermal,” “sustainable,” “biofuel,” “green transport,” “environmental footprint,” “greywater,” and “electric motor” in the project’s description provided in its ICOBench profile. The words were derived from the definition of cleantech available on Wikipedia and other web pages such as www.cleantech.com. After we identify the list of ICOs with the aforementioned words in the description, we manually checked the shortlisted ICO’s profiles to make sure the identified projects are directly related to clean energy. After the procedure, we remain with 40 ICOs focusing on clean energy.
- 2.
The Appendix provides the list of green ICOs.
- 3.
The categories are not mutually exclusive, as the underlying tokens from the ICOs may incorporate more than one type of service. The categories are assigned based on the most salient feature of the ICOs. Due to the flexibility of smart contracts, which are able to incorporate different functionalities and attributes, the issued tokens after a successful ICO can incorporate a combination of the mentioned themes, potentially in different variations.
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Arslan-Ayaydin, Ö., Shrestha, P., Thewissen, J. (2020). Blockchain as a Technology Backbone for an Open Energy Market. In: Dorsman, A., Arslan-Ayaydin, Ö., Thewissen, J. (eds) Regulations in the Energy Industry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32296-0_5
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